'Overseas investment' to generate electricity on Orkney came courtesy of the
British taxpayer, says Christopher Booker

In February the UK Carbon Trust announced that it was giving £3.9 million of UK taxpayers’ money to a Norwegian firm, Hammerfest Stom, to build a tidal turbine at the European Marine Energy Centre on Orkney. This would produce piddling amounts of electricity (averaging some 270 kilowatts) at a quite absurd cost – higher even than that produced by wind turbines.

This month Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, had the audacity to fly to Oslo to announce that Hammerfest Stom was to “invest £4 million in Scottish businesses” to build the turbine, and that this “overseas investment” was a “massive vote of confidence” in Scotland’s “talent, expertise and infrastructure”. He did not of course reveal that the £4 million came from British taxpayers in the first place. Even for the incorrigible Mr Salmond, such shameless pulling of the wool must have exceeded his own personal best.